Gastronomy & Food Culture Research

Dharma Nutrition

Wed, 09 May 2012 22:56:59 -0400

I am now consulting for my good friend Sandi Andersen owner of #Dharma Nutrition,

http://www.dharmanutritionri.com/

I am availible for private classes and events through their website. Please look at their website, it is going to be amazing. A one stop website for all holistic nutrition related needs.

Thank you #Sandi Andersen and #Dharma Nutrition

Worlds 50 Best Restaurants

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:55:50 -0400

Today in London the Worlds 50 best restaurants where named. At the top of the list in first place was Noma. This marked their 3rd year on top of the chart, and as my plans for the immediate future have changed I have taken a new step and goal to see that my next move is to work at the Best restaurant in the world. They not only make outstanding food, but encapsulate the same visions and philosophy of my own. I will keep everyone up to date on my progress towards my Denmark Adventure.

Thank you all,

#Matt McPherson

Heritage

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 02:21:30 -0400

What is you favorite food from your heritage?

Thanks for blogging

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:44:29 -0400

Although I have not gotten as much time as I would like to blog I still love it. As I read the book “Will write for food” by Dianne Jacob in which you are taken through all the different formats and styles of writing about food, whether its magazines, newspapers, books or blogs. It is an absolute job to read and learn to create my own voice as I continue my blogging. The book has pointed out to me that blogging is amazing because I can write whatever and whenever. Whatever thoughts on my mind, completely uncensored. As I learn and explore everything I find and discover I am able to share. In essence share my passion with the world, and hope someone finds it interesting :). If anyone else is interested in blogging, or writing even if its not about food I strongly encourage reading “Will Write For Food”.

Thanks Foodies,

Matt

Composting conference

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:06:12 -0500

It is a great day today as I am attending the RI annual composting conference. It is a event in which the best practices for industrialising and globalising the practice of composting, recycling and all other green waste disposal methods. One of the main goals is to find a way to create composting systems for schools, universities and all other large organisations with tons of waste, literally. Helping to put on this event is the excoriate education fund as well as Eco ri and the hope artiste village where it is being held.

Some of the speakers include Michael Virga the executive director of the united states composting council. The did an in depth analysis of the status of composting in the US for 2012 and where we should be headed. As amazing as this product is I am excited to see if they can implement it into the home kitchen as well as on the industrial scale.

Although barely scraping the surface of this inspirational event, I am much anticipating next years which lends itselfs to what new practices have been invented and implemented.

This upcoming years will prove to be exciting and can’t wait to see our growth and development.

Photo

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:43:43 -0500

Excited!!

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:49:01 -0500

A lot going on these days! I am working heavily with Dharma Nutrition on their new website that hopefully will be running soon. Also getting to working on next year studying gastronomy at BU and hopefully working at restaurant in Boston.

Does anyone have suggestions of places to work? whats your fav restaurant in Boston?

A self-evaluation (short essay discussing your motivation for study)

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:20:01 -0500

I have had a hard time discovering who I really am, and frankly I still don’t know. But one thing I have learned about myself is that I can grow and I can be better. I look back on how naive I was when first entering into college 5 years ago out of high school. I thought I had a plan, I thought I knew where I wanted to go. As it turns out I didn’t, and I was not ready for it even if I had known. I am able to look back on my plan and see I was not as interested as I thought I was. For I attended classes but spent hours studying subjects I wasn’t taking, but I always loved learning the new, being adventurous and discovery.

I went back home the following year to reassess my future. To learn what I loved and my passion was truly for, and I continued my education at my local community college to keep my thirst for knowledge wet. This allowed me to do a strange thing, to take course that sounded fun. I took French, and statistics, accounting, and college cooking course, micro economics and marketing as well as geography. These were the courses that sounded fun to me, not that I needed them or anything but they came natural. I studied these as it turned out put me on a course towards a business degree which I then transferred to my current school Johnson & Wales university; helping me to complete a bachelors a year early.

All the while I had found a place to wet another interest, food. A local restaurant had kindly taken the opportunity for cheap help and hired me as a dishwasher, with promise of teaching me the basics of a kitchen. One of my now friends Executive Chef Robert Smith is really responsible for me being so passionate. As I worked starting doing little things around the kitchen while fulfilling my main duties of dishwasher, I was able to see his passion for food. He is not necessarily the greatest chef, or the smartest, or even the most pure, but he loves food and was willing to share that and guide me in my first steps in the industry. He also had a remarkable talent for answering questions, at least those basic ones I had at the time, with an encyclopedic accuracy. He also did another thing; he allowed me to eat at create, if there was extra or time he let me make a sauce or roast a chicken. These little things all keep my teeth sunk into what was now becoming my obsession. A subject that truly enthralled me 24/7. This was where I could discover, create, learn and always find something I don’t know. A place where I could combine my first passion, or at least my interest, of science and technology.

I have an endless love of food, but not just for food, it’s for everything involving food, the food culture, ingredients, techniques, lingo, tastes, I have a love for discovery and true understanding. Any one of my classmates will tell you as they have to deal with my infinite number of questions throughout class, Many of which have are not needed as part of class material but rather just for the gain and complete understanding of a subject.. But I am an engineer, the application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and the sources of energy in nature are made useful to people, at heart. I have found that I can combine these. Not just by taking technology into the kitchen, but the logic and studious nature of any science major. Learn the basics of food, this entail not only going down into the molecular chemistry that takes place during the mallard reaction but its history and evolution as well.

I want to learn the culture and tradition of food; the roots, the molecular culture of food. I want to change the meaning of molecular gastronomy to encompass not just the science but the culture too. I want to find the reasons why the US doesn’t have any and is that why we are in such bad health. To learn the relationship of nutrition and food culture. I believe food is the meaning of life, and it’s true we live because we eat. Simple enough and how we live and feel and everything our body does can be resolved to “you are what you eat”. This realization was only amplified by my recent internship at the restaurant Mikla in Istanbul Turkey. Turkey offered me my first real glimpse of how life can be better with the depth of culture. There is a rich tradition in Turkey, one of the oldest, and I was fortunate enough to explore this culture with Food anthropologist Tangor Tan, who works for the Mikla restaurant company in Turkey explore just that; the rich culture and traditions of the Mediterranean and middle east.

This exploration bit off the piece of me that really showed me where I was destine to go. The richness of culture, the tradition and respect for this showed that there is more to learn and this is really the base of food. It is where to start and learning the rest of food. Once you learn why then you can learn how.

My passion is food, the true understanding of every detail. For how it is made to how it digests to how we as Homo sapiens use it. To how we start growing from hunters and gathers in the 10000 years ago all the way to making jellies and foams out of seaweeds. Then taking that knowledge and applying it to our world our food. Bring restaurants into new realms of tradition and history. This creates a cuisine that is not only healthy but sustainable and will be delicious.

Thanks for the questions!!

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:03:05 -0500

Hello ALL,

I am happy to see people writing in with their questions! I assure you I get them and am currently writing some articles on the subjects. This is a great help, for I am going to be featured as a chef writer on a new nutrition website. So I need all the Ideas you can to get me writing articles.

Thank you all,

answers coming soon :)

Chef Matt

OMG awesomest pool table ever, and gorgeous photo too.

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:49:03 -0500

OMG awesomest pool table ever, and gorgeous photo too.

"One cannot #think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not #dined well. —-Virginia Woolf #Food"

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:08:08 -0500

“One cannot #think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not #dined well. —-Virginia Woolf
#Food”

- http://foodquotes.net/

Follow Dharma Nutrition

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:34:49 -0500

Follow Dharma Nutrition:

Here at Dharma Nutrition we explore new frontiers in food as medicine the expansion of human consciousness through programs, products, and services for the integration of mind, body, spirit and environment in healthcare, education, business and personal development.
We believe there is an intimate connection between mind, body and spirit as well as between the individual and the environment.
At Dharma Nutrition we offer a variety of nutritional guidance (food as medicine), educational programs, stress management techniques and yogic practices designed to nurture the mind, body and spirit.
To Transform we help others to experience the balance and integration of mind, body and spirit, and we provide support and guidance while they incorporate these principles into their daily lives.
We Share a vision of higher states of consciousness and embrace the path of enlightenment.
The Dharma team will guide you on your path in achieving your goals.
Success is yours to be had.
Namaste

aperture24: cucumber yoghurt soup shooters with marinated...

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:04:22 -0500

aperture24:

cucumber yoghurt soup shooters with marinated salmon

He is not only amazing golfer but an inspiration to us all.

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:41:42 -0500

He is not only amazing golfer but an inspiration to us all.

Food culture US rough draft

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 03:58:34 -0500

We as the US need a food culture. Our country is based on freedom and capitalism, and how ever great this has made us it has left us as a nation with shallow culture and tradition. We evolve and expand our culture for the sake of money, if it’s cheapest and will make money let’s do it and make the whole country love it. In order that our nation fix its health epidemic, in order for us to live healthier, to change and grow we need to find a soul to or food culture, a starting point in which we can build our food culture. The healthiest nations in the world have a long, deep history with its food.

The main issue with is for the US is that culture is based on what is most abundant. In the Mediterranean olives, figs, grapes all started a food culture for them to evolve. In the Asians rice, soy, seaweed and many others for base for theirs. These diets are made of vegetables and starch. This comes from the evolution from hunter gatherer to, farmer all the way into domestication of animals. Plants have always been easiest to find and eat, so this defines the food culture.

As thanksgiving approaches we find ourselves waiting for the big feast. Thinking of the turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, corn, because that has always been our image of the “first” thanksgiving. As I am here studying in the real “Turkey” I find myself having to describe thanksgiving. It may seem an easy task but really what defines our thanksgiving. It’s our harvest celebration, one of our few food culture traditions.

Why is it really important for us to find our traditional foods? For me living in Istanbul for the last 3 months has showed me more than just a different culture. I have seen a heritage, a passion for tradition and bonds that go further than money ever can. I have seen wool made in the same fashion as over a hundred years before, with craftsmanship and heritage that makes people love and buy, and not because of its price or the brand name of it. Here there is a culture that loves what it is, they aren’t afraid of dancing in the streets in traditional dance, even if they look like they are having a seizer. Yes black see dancing is not pretty but they do it and love it. The US on the other hand has grown because of money and profit. McDonalds is successful because it’s cheap, makes money and therefore it’s heavily sold to the public. As a country with no traditional foods, restaurants and not even a heavy family food culture it is hard to tell people to eat things because its “healthy”.

People of most countries eat foods because it’s just what they eat no other reason it’s their culture, and this culture has come from times when peoples goals in life was just to feed their family and usually meant with the cheapest and most abundant foods. Which is the main reason most cultures have starches and veggies as main foods of dinner. Traditional dishes grew from there. As a chef going through culinary school there was huge discussions about what the American food culture is, and never any resolve, not by professors or students or anyone.

we as a country go for what’s cheapest in the spirit of capitalism to make money and profit, and it’s the what makes us us, we need more as people. Only so much can be build on money, culture is what defines us and what makes us one. It shows how we have grown and evolved as a people. Our food culture has not grown, the most important part of our lives, one of the ingredients for life as been neglected and has not grown from the heritage of the native Americans, or the feast of the first thanksgiving. Even the amazing foods that have come across into our melting pot have been changed not for the sake of culture but for making a profit.

So what is the American food culture? America is a melting pot, if we regress to the traditions of the native Americans we find ourselves back at thanksgiving. Many of the most common food sources are found there, wild turkey, waterfowl, bass, and lets not forget the 3 sisters corn, beans and squash(Bradford) . These can be called our base and as it is they do show up profoundly in our food culture. Although these are the only ingrediends they are a good start. From these some dishes earliest have been cornbread, mush (polenta),

1. Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647

By William Bradford, Samuel Eliot Morison

Photo

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:55:04 -0400

And the even have dogs :) and amazing garden

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:53:48 -0400

And the even have dogs :) and amazing garden

holy crap traveling through turkey

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:43:03 -0400

So for the past 2 days i have traveled with Food anthropologist Tangor Tan. Talk about amazing guy, even before leaving Istanbul on our trip had best food yet, an amazing breakfast called Boruk damn good. It reminded me of a meat stuffed croissant sooooo good! then after a 8 hour drive kick as lunch. and now today have found a restaurant owned by Usta Lufta (Chef) with best view of any restaurant I have ever seen amazing!

Photo

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 13:22:13 -0400

Justin biber

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 13:17:04 -0400

Soo I discovered a funny thing today. If u translate Justin bibers name from Turkish to English you get Justin pepper. Lol